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TO THE MEMORY 



OF 



Hon. WILLIAM WILLIS, LL.D. 



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A TRIBUTE 



TO THE MEMORY 



Hon. WILLIAM WILLIS, LL.D., 



OF PORTLAND, MAINE. 



BEAD BEFORE THE 



NUMISMATIC AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY 
OF PHILADELPHIA, 



Stated Meeting Thursday Evening March 3, 1870. 



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BY 

CHARLES HENRY HART, 

HISTORIOGRAPHER OF THE SOCIETY. 




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*> PHILADELPHIA 

1870. 



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TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY COPIES PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. 



COLLINS, PRINTER 



A TRIBUTE. 



It is my official duty to announce to the Society this even- 
ing, the death of its Honorary Vice-President for the State 
of Maine, Hon. William Willis, who died at his residence in 
Portland, on Thursday, February 17th, at the advanced age 
of seventy-six years; and I offer for your consideration the 
following resolutions of respect: — 

Resolved, That the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of 
Philadelphia has heard with feelings of unfeigned sorrow and 
sincere regret of the decease of its late Honorary Vice-Presi- 
dent for the State of Maine, Hon. William Willis, A.M., 
LL.D., therefore be it further, 

Resolved, That while this Society is grateful that the life 
of one whose well-balanced and cultivated mind, sound and 
discriminating judgment, various accurate and extensive know- 
ledge in the study of subjects of historical inquiry, together 
with an industry that never flagged, should have been spared 
beyond the time allotted upon earth to man, with his mind 
bright and active to the last; still it cannot but be sensible 
of the great gap left in its roll of members by his death, and 
the irreparable loss sustained by the field of investigation he 
so loved to explore. 

Resolved, That these resolutions be entered at large upon 
the minutes of this meeting. 

William Willis was born in Haverhill, Mass., August 31, 
1794. His father was Benjamin Willis, born at Charlestown, 
Mass., March 5, 1768. He married, January 9, 1791, Mary, 
third daughter of Dr. William M'Kinstry, of Taunton, whose 
father, the Rev. John M'Kinstry, of Ellington, emigrated to 
this country in 1718, from the county of Antrim in the pro- 
vince of Ulster, Ireknd, whither his parents fled about 1669, 
from the religious persecutions in Scotland, under Charles the 
Second. The paternal ancestry of Mr. Willis can be traced 
with certainty to Michael "Wills 1 ' or "Willis," styled "cutler" 



of Dorchester, Mass., who with George Willis, of Cambridge 
(likely his brother), was admitted to the freeman's oath in 
1638, and became a founder of the Second Church in Boston, 
June 5, 1650. His will was proved October 7, 1669, probably 
not long after his death. He had a son, Michael, born Novem- 
ber 11, 1652, whose son, Michael the third, born July 4, 
169-1, was the father of Benjamin Willis, born September 11, 
1717, who perished at the siege of Louisburg, leaving his 
wife, Ann Grammell, and an only son, born January 10, 1748, 
and named from his father, to survive him. This Benjamin, 
the second of the name, who died November 11, 1811, was 
the grandfather of the subject of this notice. Benjamin Willis 
had by his wife, Mary M'Kinstry, eight children, the second 
of whom was William, whose career I propose briefly to 
sketch. When he was nine years of age his father removed 
to Portland, Me., from whence he was sent in 1808, to Exeter 
Academy, for his preparation for a college course. In 1810, 
he was admitted to the Sophomore class of Harvard Uni- 
versity, and in 1813 took his first degree. He is reported to 
have been a diligent student, and to have shared honorably 
in the distribution of the honors at the commencement exer- 
cises. He returned to his father's home after his graduation, 
and was entered a student at law in the office of Hon. Prentiss 
Mellen ; but his father returning with his family to Boston 
in 1815, he was transferred to the office of Judge Peter 0. 
Thacher, where he completed his legal course, and was ad- 
mitted to the Suffolk Bar in January, 1817, and immediately 
opened an office in Boston. In August, 1815, he had sailed 
from Boston in company with his friend, the late Edwin 
Bartlett, of New York, for Lisbon, and after an absence of 
several months arrived at Norfolk, Va., January 25, 1816, 
having made the round trip to Portugal and back in his 
friend's company. It is to Mr. Willis that a humorous allu- 
sion is made, in the description of a severe storm on their 
outward trip, in the journal of his friend, referred to in the 
beautiful tribute to Mr. Bartlett, by Dr. Kuschenberger, of 
this city, entitled "A Memory." Two years later he visited 
the West Indies, and resided in the islands of Martinique and 
Guadaloupe until the spring of 1818, when he returned to his 
home and resumed his profession. 



In April, 1819, his first preceptor in the principles of the 
law having been elected a Senator in Congress, invited his 
former pupil to return to Portland and take charge of his 
practice. An invitation so flattering and so favorable was 
not to be neglected, and in response he removed to Portland 
and entered into copartnership with Mr. Mellen, who had 
then a very extensive practice; but the next year, soon after 
the organization of the State, the latter was appointed the 
first Chief-Justice of Maine, the result of which was of course 
to dissolve their business relations. Mr. Willis continued to 
practise his profession alone until 1835, when he formed a 
connection with the late distinguished Senator from Maine, 
lion. William Pitt Fessenden, which continued very success- 
fully for nearly twenty years. As a lawyer Mr. Willis stood 
high ; a practitioner of sterling integrity, gentle and pleasing 
in address, a sound and safe counsellor, he had few supe- 
riors. Soon after his return to Portland he was engaged 
as assistant editor of one of the newspapers of the city, and 
continued in that position for three or four years. On the 
1st of September, 1823, Mr. Willis married Julia, daughter of 
the late Chief-Justice Ezekiel Whitman, of Maine, who died 
at East Bridgewater, Mass., August 1, 1866, aged 90 years 
and 4 months. The issue of this marriage was eight children, 
one only of whom, a daughter, the wife of Dr. Baron C. Watson, 
of New York, is believed to survive. Mr. Willis' mother 
died in Boston, February 12, 1847, after a happy union of 
fiftr-six years with her husband, who survived until October 
1, 1853, in his 86th year. The same number of years did her 
son enjoy the same blessing, his wife being left to mourn his 
loss. 

In the prosperity of the Maine Historical Society he was 
much interested, and was elected a member in 1828, six years 
after its formation. In the first volume of its " Collections," 
published in 1831, appeared Part I. of his history of Port- 
land ; Part II. being published in a separate form two years 
later. He has been the chief editor of all the publications of 
the Society, and to most of them a valued contributor. The 
second volume, published in 1847, contained "Supplementary 
Eemarks to an Account of an Ancient Settlement on Shep- 
scot River," and an appreciative notice of the character and 



6 

writings of William Ladd, of Minot, both from his pen, while 
the fourth volume contains a most valuable contribution to 
American philology in an "Essay on the Language of the 
Abnaquis Indians," with an appendix, in the shape of a letter 
to the author, from the late Hon. Chandler E. Potter, of New 
Hampshire; and an introductory address which he was invited 
to deliver before the Historical Society at its first public meet- 
ing, in Augusta, February 2, 1855, in which he gives a rapid 
glance at the history and statistics of the State and the re- 
quirements of the Society. In 1831, he had been elected 
Eecording Secretary, and annually re-elected until 1834, the 
last year holding at the same time the office of Treasurer. In 
1816, he was again chosen to the position of Secretary, and 
continued discharging the duties of this post until 1856, when 
he succeeded the Hon. Eobert H. Gardiner as President, and 
was successively re-elected until 1865, when he resigned and 
Hon. Edward E. Bourne was chosen his successor. Upon his 
accession to the President's chair he delivered an inaugural 
address dedicated to the memory of his predecessors in that 
office. A copy of this address he kindly sent me a few years 
since, enriched, not " defaced" as he termed it, with his manu- 
script notes and additions. He had used it, he wrote me, in 
the preparation of "A History of the Law, the Courts, and the 
Lawyers of Maine," an octavo volume of over seven hundred 
pages, published in 1863. In 1858, he delivered an interest- 
ing and valuable address on the Scotch-Irish emigration to 
Maine, giving incidentally a brief account of Presbyterianism, 
to which he subsequently added a "Genealogy of theM'Kins- 
try Family," a second edition of which, much enlarged, was 
printed in 1866, and a copy presented by the author, is in our 
library. His last literary enterprise for the Historical Society 
was the supervision last year of Dr. J. G. Kohl's learned 
history of the " Discovery of Maine," forming the first vol- 
ume of the documentary history of the State, published under 
the authority of the Legislature, which made a special appro- 
priation for the purpose, and sent the Kev. Dr. Leonard 
Woods, late President of Bowdoin College, to Europe, to 
investigate the subject and secure every document and paper 
calculated to throw light upon it. To the " Eegister" of the 
N. E. Historic-Genealogical Society, of which he was from 



1855 to 1859 one of the Vice-Presidents, he made many in- 
teresting contributions, the last to the number for April, 1869, 
entitled " A Summary of Voyages to the Northern Atlantic 
Coast of America in the Sixteenth Century," based upon the 
work of Dr. Kohl just mentioned. He also wrote a " Biblio- 
graphical Essay on the Early Collections of Voyages to 
America," a very careful and able paper, which was printed 
in the fifteenth volume of the "Register." To the " Histori- 
cal Magazine or American Notes and Queries," for January, 
1868, he contributed a " Sketch of the Origin and Progress 
of the Maine Historical Society," and to No. 4, of Norton's 
" Literary Letter," published at New York in 1859, a " Bib- 
liography of the State of Maine," a copy of which with manu- 
script additions by himself, he presented to this Society. He 
was engaged upon an enlarged and revised edition of this work 
at the time of his death. The only works of Mr. Willis not 
enumerated that I can now recall are " Smith's and Deane's 
Journal," which he prepared for the press in 1849, with notes 
and biographical sketches, and a new edition of his " History 
of Portland," a large volume of nearly one thousand pages, 
which appeared in 1865. The entire edition of this work 
which remained in the hands of the publisher, was utterly 
consumed in the great Portland fire of July 4, 1866. 

Mr. Willis was intrusted by his fellow-townsmen with many 
important and honorable positions. In 1855, he was a Senator 
in the Legislature of Maine, and in 1857, Mayor of the city 
of Portland, and was chosen an Elector of President of the 
United States in 1860, and appointed President of the Electoral 
College. He was for many years a Director and Vice-Presi- 
dent of the Merchants' Bank of Portland, and President of 
the Portland Benevolent Society, and also of the Portland 
Institute, the latter taking the place of a public library. His 
last public act was as pall-bearer at the obsequies of Mr. 
Peabody, and in consequence of his fast declining strength, 
he alone was provided with a seat. Two years ago, Bowdoin 
College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of 
Laws, a well-merited and richly deserved distinction. He was 
a member of nearly all of the State Historical Societies, in- 
cluding that of Massachusetts. At the annual meeting of this 
Society, in December, 1867, he was selected as one of its 



8 

honorary Vice-Presidents, and promptly accepted the position 
in most complimentary terms. He seemed to take great in- 
terest in the subjects marked out for study by our Society, 
and made many valuable donations both to the cabinet and 
to the library. With one of his donations (a copy in plaster 
of a rare and valuable medal of Cecil, second Lord Baltimore), 
he wrote a highly instructive historical description which I 
had the pleasure of presenting at the time. 

This sketch, or more properly memorandum of facts, which 
has been thrown together in great haste, will amply prove 
that our late member well earned the deference paid him by 
this Society when it chose him to the office which death has 
made vacant. He died of pure physical exhaustion induced 
by unceasing activity of brain, without the slightest abate- 
ment in the clearness of his intellectual powers: thus the wish 
expressed by him a few days before his death was fulfilled. 
"My hope is," said Mr. Willis, "that I may not outlive my 
intellectual strength." I cannot bring this notice to a close 
in a more appropriate manner, than by citing an extract from 
a letter received a few days since from our corresponding 
member, Hubbard W. Bryant, Esq., a warm personal friend 
of the deceased. He writes: "Our State and city sustain a 
great loss in his death, and it will be long ere his place is 
even partly filled. I knew him quite intimately, and can 
testify to his superior erudition and memory, which did not 
fail him to the last. His manners were very modest and un- 
assuming, and he was always pleased to give information to 
those who sought it. He had a strong interest in our Public 
Library enterprise from its earliest conception, and much of 
the success it has attained is owing to him. A large portion 
of his private library is left by his will to the Public Library. 
He dropped away suddenly and quite unexpectedly to his 
family and friends, being confined to his bed but half a day." 
The services at his funeral took place at the First Parish 
Church on Saturday, the 19th, and were attended by a large 
gathering of his fellow-citizens, including the members of 
the city government in a body, who followed his remains to 
Evergreen Cemetery where they were interred, there to await 
the final call of his beloved Master, in whom he so firmly 
believed. 



